As the date for filing taxes comes ever closer for this year, most people are scrambling to find whatever deductions they can to help reduce their taxes. Did you know that there are certain circumstances when you can actually use your garden or landscape as a tax deduction?  Here is a list of some ways you can consider tax deductible gardening:

Do you have a home office? You may be able to deduct labor and material expenses that you put into the landscaping that surrounds your garden, especially if it creates part of the ‘entrance’ to your office.

Did you sell your home? If you put money into improving the ‘curb appeal’ of your house to help it sell, or you had to fix up your garden as a ‘necessary improvement’, the costs involved can be deducted from the profits you will be declaring from the sales of your house at tax time.

Did you sell garden produce? Any flowers, vegetables or fruits you sold can be considered an income from your garden. Crafts made from garden materials will also qualify. As a result, all expenses involved with growing your garden will then become deductible for tax purposes. The one hitch to this one is that you have to first declare your income from garden sales before you can deduct anything.

Do you work in the green industry? If you are a landscaper, nursery person, garden designer or architect, garden writer, gardener or have income from any related job, you can consider part of your garden as a business expense. You can claim you used the garden for learning, experimenting, trials, information, etc.

Have you done outdoor presentations in your garden?  Any courses, business presentations, lectures or other events connected with how you make your living that were delivered in your landscape area or garden can make that space part of your business ‘office’. A single event may be hard to justify, and it has to be directly connected to your business, but if you live in a mild climate, expanding your office space outdoors can help you declare tax deductible gardening.

Do you rent space in your house? Not only are repairs and maintenance costs indoors necessary to your property. You can consider outdoor property maintenance a deductible expense for conducting your rental business.

There may be even more ways to work your landscape into tax deductible gardening. Check with your accountant for more advice.

If you have not kept records up to this point and realize that you have legitimate ways to make your garden into a tax deduction, don’t worry: there’s always next year. Start keeping records now.  There are some good buys on software out there. Check into products like Turbo Tax or TaxCut (which is now called H&R Block at Home) for the best prices. Keeping records will make it easy to keep track on any income in which your garden or landscape played a part. And by regularly logging all your expenses for gardening, even the little expenses will have time to build up into a nice deduction for next years’ taxes.

With all the changes in the economy and the growing popularity of green living, your garden can offer business opportunities you might not have considered in the past. Look at your landscape and see if you might be able to start a good business in a bad economy. You may be able to get even more than tax deductible gardening out of your landscape this coming year.

Also see:

How to find a free list of tax deductions

How to find a grant for a woman-owned business